Clooney baffles Berliner by paying dinner bill

Published: 28 Jan 2013 10:20 GMT+01:00

George Clooney confused a German man in a posh Berlin restaurant by paying for his dinner. The Hollywood star apparently feared he and his friends had been rude, but the baffled businessman didn't even notice the actor at the next table.

The man ate at the Grill Royal restaurant in the centre of the city on Friday evening - but when he went to pay the more than €100 bill, he found it had already been covered.

The waiter said George Clooney had paid it, fearing he and his friends who were at the next table, had disturbed the man by being too loud.

"That's not true at all. They had behaved in a very cultivated manner. I was stunned," the man told Monday's Bild newspaper.

He left his business card at the Hollywood star's table so he could one day return the favour - and even then did not recognize Clooney.

It was only after he left the restaurant that the man realized who had bought him dinner, he told the paper.

Clooney is in Berlin preparing to make his new movie The Monuments Men in Babelsberg, Potsdam.

He is expected to bring other big stars to town, including Cate Blanchet, Matt Damon, Jean Dujardin and Bill Murray to take part in the film which tells the story of art historians and museum curators who tried to save art looted by the Nazis before it was destroyed at the end of World War II.

A call for candidates to try out for extra parts in the film this weekend resulted in around 3,500 people queuing up in freezing temperatures for a possible role as a German soldier.

Having recently moved here from the US, I'm not surprised, since people are less attentive to those around them here - especially out in public places. He and his friends were probably loud in 'American' terms, which would pretty much go unnoticed here =) Not saying that's a bad thing - different culture is all. I don't see many overly polite, constantly apologizing, people here in Germany, as it was in the cities in California.

Reply to catjones > You are ful of it. Germans are no different to anyone else and is ntohing more than a racist remark on your part. I happen to be a german, live in Australia with brought up with values equal to all. I am generous as well as surprsied on any generousity these days. they are hard to come by in todays Society. So" get this German thing out of your mind > Nothing to do with it. Morron!!

RainerL, I hate to put such a fine and well-researched point on it, but you could not be more wrong. Germans rank very low in the World Giving Index. Certainly nothing in comparison to #1 United States.

@RainerL Living in Australia hmmm that says it your way of acting is different. My mother-in-law and my wife both have been in the restaurant business for a combined 40 years. They constantly complain about how cheap the Germans are, they said even when the Americans or Brits might act like idiots they at least show some decorum at the end of the day with their wallet. They say most Germans act like you are their slave. Hence the reason the city I live in as the Americans move out the restaurants are trying to move with them. Huge difference in money making when your customers are only German.

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